Winner of the Call for Organic Innovations 2018

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Objective of the project

Today, we face a significant decrease in number and biodiversity of wild insect pollinators resulting from habitat loss and intensive agriculture. There is mounting evidence of pollinator decline all over the world and consequences in many agricultural areas could be significant. Moreover, several diseases and pests are responsible for the decline of key managed pollinators such as honeybees. In this context, there is a real need for new natural pollination solutions that will promote a sustainable agriculture model.

At the moment, very few companies in Europe propose natural pollination solutions. The only insect pollinators commercially available are hymenopteran species such as honeybees and bumblebees. Though recently, some meat flies have also been introduced to the market to help address the pollination deficiency issue in certain crops. By nature, honeybees and bumblebees are not effective in all crops and the conditions of the parcel where hives are introduced can greatly affect the effectivity of these hymenopteran pollinators. Furthermore, honeybees and bumblebees are sensitive social insects with complex behaviour. More and more often nowadays they find themselves in situations where their ability to pollinate crops is compromised. This is why meat flies are also being used for pollination despite their relative inefficiency. Because they are introduced at inundative doses in the greenhouses, the flies eventually contribute to pollination as they randomly visit flowers in search for nectar.

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Main outcomes and recommendations of the project

Polyfly’s innovation aims to address part of this big issue by providing hoverflies for pollination. The hoverflies Polyfly is proposing are basically half way between traditional pollinators and meat flies. The behaviour and morphology of our hoverflies is what makes them very efficient pollinators. Indeed, they exhibit a strong floral foraging behaviour similar to the one of hymenopterans. The adults continuously visit flowers feeding on pollen and nectar which are sources of proteins and carbohydrates necessary for their development and survival. As hoverflies visit the flowers, pollen grains stick to their hairy bodies and are transported to other flowers, therefore allowing pollination to occur. Thus, they can be used both as complement or alternative to hymenopteran pollinators, and are a very effective alternative to meat flies.

The benefits of using pollinating hoverflies can be both quantitative and qualitative. Indeed, using them can result in increased fruits and seeds yields while improving overall quality of the fruits (shape, size, degrees brix, etc.). In this way, hoverflies can contribute to a more profitable cropping system. Last but not least, using insects as pollinating agents requires from the farmer to manage the crops differently, reducing the inputs of chemical products (e.g. pesticides, herbicides) that could affect the pollinators survival. This means that Polyfly’s hoverflies can also become great allies when it comes to production of organic vegetables, fruits, and seeds.

Polyfly’s innovation consists of the mass-rearing and commercialisation of flies belonging to the Syrphidae family (Syrphidae: Eristalinae), commonly referred to as hoverflies or flower flies. These hoverflies can be used as pollinators in protected fruit, vegetable and seed crops, either as a complement or alternative to traditional pollinators and other artificial pollination strategies. Pollination with hoverflies can allow for more efficient production of vegetables, fruits and seeds under several circumstances where traditional pollinators such as honeybees and bumblebees as well as meat flies do not perform well. In some cases, it can also be a great alternative to artificial pollination strategies (i.e. manual, mechanical or applied synthetic phytohormones).

Benefits for Agroecology

The innovation promotes all of IFOAM’s Principles of Organic Agriculture as follows:

It allows and promotes organic farming as the introduction of auxiliary insects such as pollinating hoverflies is incompatible with the use of pesticides and other chemical products. The use of pesticides is reduced.

It allows pollination in all types of cabins, tunnels, and greenhouses, thereby enabling small producers to produce seeds in-farm.

It provides an alternative to mechanical pollination, avoiding the use of vibrators and air blowers that need machinery and fuel consumption while being costly due to the time and workforce needed for their application.

Polyfly’s pollinators are beneficial insects. The adult flies are not aggressive and do not sting or cause nuisance to humans or animals. The use of hoverflies as pollinators is environmentally friendly and harmless for workers and the population in general.

Unlike meat flies that are also used as alternative pollinators, the adult and larval stages of these hoverflies do not need animal proteins, which means they do not pose a threat from a sanitary point of view (e.g. myasis occurrence in nearby livestock).

The use of pollinating hoverflies increases on-farm biodiversity by adding new species of beneficial insects to the panoply of managed insect.

They are addressed to their own native area or areas where they are already present, therefore not challenging the ecological equilibrium in the local environment.

Because they promote the production of diverse fruits and vegetables, they contribute to healthier and more sustainable diets. The production of Eristaline hoverflies contributes to the reduction of food waste .

The production process of Eristaline hoverflies developed by Polyfly does not involve the use of polluting chemicals, neither does it produce dangerous residues.

The production of hoverfly species requires the use of decaying organic matter. During their larval stage, these insects are saprophagous, which means they feed upon organic nutrients present in vegetal wastes. They basically act as recycling agents of organic wastes. Thus, the mass-production of hoverflies fits very well in a circular economy model.

Innovation scale and stage

Polyfly is the only company worldwide that commercialises hoverflies as alternative pollinators. By doing so, it offers an innovative, economically viable and environmentally sustainable pollination solution.

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Contact Person

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Belén Belliure Ferrer - bbelliure(@)polyfly.es

Contact PersonPOLYFLY S.L, Spain

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PARTNERS

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University of Almería

Spain

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University of Córdoba

Spain

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IFAPA La Mojonera

Spain

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INFO

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Partner type

Farmers organisations, public research institutions and private partners

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Project start year

2017

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Audiovisual material

Funding source

Private and public funding from The Spanish Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism; The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Enterprise; The Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI)

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